a 
3D 
MARSILEA MACROPUS.—The Nardoo of Australia. In general appear- 
ance this curious plant bears a resemblance to clover. It grows in low 
erounds that are wet, sending out long rhizomes, or stems, which lie on 
the surface of the mud : : when the pools dry up, the leaves wither, leav- 
ing the hard involucres on the surface, which are gathered , pounded into 
flour, and used for making bread. European travelers lost in the bush 
have subsisted for days on this plant, humble as it appears. 
MAURITIA FLEXUOSA.—The Moriche, or Ita palm, is very abundant 
on the banks of the Amazon, Rio Negro, and Orinoco Rivers. In the 
delta of the latter it occupies swampy tracts of ground, which are at 
times completely inundated, and present the appearance of forests rising 
out of the water. These swamps are frequented by a tribe of Indians 
called Guaranes, who subsist almost entirely upon the produce of this 
palm, and during the period of the inundations suspend their dwellings 
from ‘the tops of its tall stems. The outer .skin of the young leaves is 
made into string and cord for the manufacture of hammocks. The fer- 
mented sap yields palm-wine, and another beverage is prepared from 
the young fruits, while the soft inner bark of the stem yields a farina- 
ceous substance like Sago. 
MAXIMILIANA REGIA.—An Amazonian palm, called Inaja. Thespathes 
are so hard that, when filled with water, they will stand the fire, and are 
sometimes used by the Indians as cooking utensils. The Inélians who 
prepare the kind of rubber called bottle-rubber, make use of the hard 
stones of the fruit as fuel for smoking and drying the successive layers 
of milky juice as it is applied to the mold upon which the bottles are 
formed. The outer husk, also, yields a kind of saline flour, used for sea- 
soning their food. 
MELALEUCA MINOR.—A native of Australia and the islands of the 
Indian Ocean. The leaves, being fermented, are distilled, and yield an 
oil known as cajuput or cajeput oil, whichis green, and has a strong aro- 
matic odor. It is valuable as an antispasmodic and stimulant, and at 
one time had a great reputation as a cure for cholera. In China the 
leaves are used as a tonic in the form of decoction. 
MELICOCCA BIJUGA.—This sapindaceous tree is plentiful in tropical 
America and the West Indies, and is known as the Genip tree. It pro- 
duces numerous green egg-shaped fruits, an inch or more in length, pos- 
sessing an agreeable vinous and somewhat aromatic flavor. The wood 
of the tree is hard and heavy. 
MELOCACTUS COMMUNIS.—Commonly called the Turk’s Cap Cactus, 
from the flowering portion on the ae of the plant being of a eylindrical 
form and red color, like a fez cap. Notwithstanding that they grow in 
the most dry, sterile places, they Costa a considerable quantity of 
moisture, which is well known to mules, who resort to them when very 
thirsty, first removing the prickles with their feet. 
MESEMBRYANTHEMUM CRYSTALLINUM.—The Ice plant, so called in 
consequence of every part of the plant being covered with small watery 
pustules, which glisten in the sun like fragments of ice. Large quanti- 
ties of this plant are collected in the Canaries and burned, the ashes being 
sent to Spain for the use of glass-makers. J. edule is called the Hot- 
tentot’s fig, its fruit being about the size of a small fig, and having a 
pleasant, acid taste when ripe. . tortuosum possesses nareotic prop- 
erties, and is chewed by the Hottentots to induce intoxication. The 
fruits possess hygrometric properties, the dried, shriveled capsules 
swelling out and opening so as to allow of the escape of the seeds when 
moistened by rain, which at the same time fits the soil for their germi- 
nation. 
